Four mortars were fired early Thursday morning near the Japanese base in Samawah, a small Shiite city of southern Iraq. Two mortar shells landed just outside the base. No one was hurt.

The US bombed the Julan quarter of Fallujah heavily on Thursday. The Guardian reports civilian casualties and argues that most of the fighters are not ex-Baathists or radicals, but young Fallujan men defending their city.

The New York Times did a fluff piece on the Fallujah bombings, quoting US military figures about how precise the AC-130 warplanes are. I am highly skeptical of these claims. Even blowing out the windows of a building, which bombing with howitzers would do, creates a hazard of flying glass that can severely injure civilians in the area, including children. The US would not use 500 pound bombs and AC-130s to get at a gang in Los Angeles or New York that had attacked police officers. It shouldn’t be using such tactics in a country where it is the Occupying Power, either.